Freedom or Delusion? The Feudal Elements in Modern Capitalism. Enslaved by Debt-Based Economics. A Wake Up Call on the Verge of a Revolution and/or Total Collapse

Shilled into Capitalistic ideology. We, modern people, tend to think that Feudalism is a thing of the past. That today in our advanced societies we enjoy freedoms and rights, not accessible to our unfortunate predecessors. Yes, today individuals in modern societies do enjoy new-found freedoms that were unthinkable before. Like gender equality, right to assembly and public protests, freedom to express your opinion, to trade and generally live your life the way you feel like living it. Of course, all those freedoms and rights do come with certain clauses and prepositions attached. The truth is, that all of the above are still emerging and although constitutionally accepted, those rights are not fully applied in practice. They are more or less fictional and formal, even though the average consumer may not see it this way. Perhaps, the biggest illusion in today’s world is that there is a Democracy. When in reality, there is Capitalism, which is the modern form of Feudalism.

History is a complex and entangled topic. But in history are the roots that laid today’s world. Due to a complexity of reasons, USA, with its economic ideology of Capitalistic prosperity and the American Dream, has placed itself as a world standard for social advancement, serving as an example for emerging economies. And despite all of its numerous flaws, a lot of governments do strive to follow in its footsteps, including ours, here in Bulgaria. Which I find a wrong thing to do. Indeed, whether due to a lack of alternatives or because of the short-sightedness of people in power, American Capitalism and US society had established as a world role model. But, hasn't this role model proved to be wrong?

In reality, USA was a land of prosperity and freedom, in the past. Today, it has turned into a highly exploitative system that completely excludes the “social” element and a global military aggressor. United States sits on old glory, because today’s reality is much different than the image they still project onto the world. In fact, USA is the world leader in hypocrisy and cynicism. Reprimanding corrupt foreign governments, when the US government works for corporations, instead for the people. Speaking against terrorism and military aggression, when the US foreign policy is one of the most terror-oriented and aggressive in the world. Talking about Global Warming and environment preservation, when US corporations are some of the major pollutants and destroyers of environment both on US territory and abroad.

Abusing non-renewable resources, as if the end of the world is just around the corner. Producing enormous amounts of waste, both organic and synthetic, that spill into rivers, oceans and all nature. The entire concept of perpetually expanding economic growth is wrong and unsustainable. A virtual economic prosperity, that still remains unexposed, but will not remain like this forever. Why virtual? Because, it is debt-based.

It is a strange thing that USA imports much more, than they export. Yet, Americans can afford a rather higher standard of life on the average. This is a controversy. And this is where the American credit system comes in the scene.

The land of the debt, where the average citizen has 8 credit cards and about a thousand dollars of debt on each one of those plastics. Americans are spending beyond their means and this situation puts American economy ahead of its actual GDP, thus this higher standard of living is somewhat artificially created with a lot of blink. The average American has higher rate of spending, than making money.

There are much unhealthy elements in the way US society ended up being set. Not to mention high rates of obesity, probably highest in the world, and GMO food treated with highly toxic chemicals (produced by Monsanto, the same Monsanto who produced Agent Orange for the Vietnam war) with side effects yet to be established, such as endocrine disruptive ones, both for humans and animals alike.

It may seem a great thing to be American, but is this only the façade? Behind the glamour there are shady mechanisms at work. Liberty, it seems, has been lost somewhere on the way.

Americans, today, are enslaved by corporations and banks. Banks lure people in taking credits with overwhelming advertisements, great offers and discounts, counting on the average person’s ignorance. Terms and clauses are intentionally complicated and written so that contracts be as less clear to the consumer as possible. Government, on the other hand, makes sure it keeps propaganda up, motivating society to be good consumers. However, the average American doesn’t make enough money to be that good a consumer, that is why they need to spend on credit, in order to fulfill the consumer-quota required from them. Modern consumerism, on the whole, is based on deception and misleading. A legalized fraud. Unfortunately, this model propagates itself overseas as well. For instance, here in Bulgaria, six years ago there were no mortgage credits, there were no credit advertisements on TV and on street banners. And today, already there are lots and lots of people in debt, caught in the spider web of banks and debt economics.

Banks use various strategies to keep their customers well in debt. They gladly would refinance your mortgage, so that you may fail to pay it off this time. They would even reprimand you, if you pay off your credit too fast. They don’t like you when you pay on time, thus avoiding interest. Ideally, banks want you to make minimal monthly payments forever. And, don’t worry, you can always go bankrupt and balance out your credit bills.

While, I’m not sure if all that bank credit system is such a bad thing after all. Since, if there were no credits available to the average working individual, the whole consumer-based society wouldn’t be possible. Not at these rates at least. But, what about the social side-effects of this aggressive Capitalism? What about the continuing and growing trends of inhumane practices of corporations, like sweatshops and death salaries? And what about the complete lack of care about the environment? What about taking responsibility for future generations yet unborn? What legacy are “we” leaving to them? A shattered and poisoned world? Why sustainable economy and renewable production is kept only in theory? Why are corporations waiting for the last drop of oil to dry out, in order to really invest in those new technologies? Greed is a great barrier to social advancement. Among other primitive behavioral patterns of human beings.

What about the growing inequality between rich and poor? Is the middle class diminishing? Where will that lead? Isn’t it time to officially declare Capitalism a mistake and move forward? Or is it that people must change their mindset first, in order that we move forward.

The presumption of constantly expanding economy is just irrational, not to mention unsustainable, and it will inevitably turn into a black hole, crushing down under its own weight

In one speech of his, J.W.Bush says that “Americans enjoy economic independence” Wow, I was truly stunned by this outlandish conclusion, what’s more, the sitting crowds in front of him actually clapped their hands joyfully. Amazing. It is amazing how much appreciation empty words can bring about. Of course, manipulative governments all around the world knew that effect long ago Bush was even born.

Title: Maxed Out

I do agree that people's own ignorance and lack of rational thought is the main reason to find themselves in such debt-overwhelmed situations. The banks having lied and deceived them into taking the bait is another element, but not really the main one. I mean, do live within your means people or at least close to it. Time to realize that the American Dream is not wealth that simply falls from the sky, it's about opportunities to earn. However, such opportunities are to be found all over the world today, so it's an old concept overall. And what about Liberty?

It is a strange thing that there are a lot of movies, articles and analyses over the past decades raising those issues and yet as if all of them are somehow kept on the background, shut and silenced with very little public attention drawn to them, like some kind of dissidents that are unfavorable to the ruling government, because, well, they are too objective and speak the truth. Preposterous.  Here is another documentary related to Freedom and Liberty in USA that I recommend watching, some of the regulations that it criticizes are truly disturbing. Like the ban on growing vegetable in your back yard. I mean, this is a fundamental human right to grow food on Earth, banned. Crazy world. 

Title: The End of Liberty (2010)

You can watch it here. 

And another one, examining this transition in a historical restrospection and embarking on quite a provoking trip in search of answers from some of the most notorious US institutions. Nearly a century later.. US society still walks oblivious to all this. Watch the following documentary, it is highly recommended and spread the word. Stand up and fight, for your freedom, for your rights!

Title: America: From Freedom to Fascism (2006) 


What we see in the above documentary is just gruesome. It is shocking and deeply, deeply disturbing. So ridiculous when people say that "USA is the freest country." Umh, think again. This sounds like the "Americans enjoy economic independence" line of Bush's. Utter and complete hot air words with absolutely no resonance in reality. Yeah, the truth is that Liberty in United States died at the beginning of the 20^th Century and it is up to people now to resurrect it back. Say no to self-imposed ignorance! Informed and intelligent is cool. Dumbness is dull (not to mention highly manipulative). Wake up people.

• A Personal Revelation on the IRS from Sherry Peel Jackson
• Wake Up. It's time for the FED to go, USA and the world will gradually settle to be a much better place after those highly exploitative institutions are abolished from society 
• Here's what happened with the abovementioned whistleblower, because she was not backed by society! US Society = the flock of IRS and the FED.
• Abolish the Federal Reserve Act of 1913. Sign the Petition

Title: Stupidity (2003)    

"Anyone who believes that exponential growth can go on forever in a finite world is either a mad man or an economist" Kenneth Boulding

The Invisible Enslavement Of Debt Economics and The Hidden Feudalism Of Centralized Governments

Economics is a strange school of thought, more abstract than philosophy, more elusive than religious esoterics. A religion on its own with established dogmas admired by its many followers, who zealously defend its paradigms. Economics has its ways shrouded in mystery, wielded by few.

Economics is at the center of civilization and its prosperity, having its roots from the very beginning of trade. However, it has evolved greatly since the days of trade exchange, before paper money, banks and big corporations. The world must have been a bleak place without the generous services of banking institutions and social convenience of credit cards.
In order to understand the present, one must understand the past that led to today. So, let us travel back in time and follow the events as they unfolded.

After the enlightened era of the Roman Empire with its thriving culture, science and philosophy ended, Europe plunged into the Dark Ages, plagued by diseases, misery, suffering and ignorance. Electricity was yet to be invented far ahead in the future and ordinary people knew little to nothing for the big world outside their local regions. 
However, the Renaissance arose and once again lit up the candle in people’s minds. And in the birth place of tourism, a new conception was brewing. That is usury and Venice. It is debatable just how new the concept of lending for profit was, but in Venice this concept began to evolve in what was to become the modern concept of banks.

Actually, the Templar knights were involved in usury and proto-banking services a few centuries earlier. If you wanted to travel, say on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, but you didn’t wanted to carry Gold coins in your pockets, because you may get robbed on the way, you went in the nearest Templar office and deposited, say, ten coins, in return you were provided with a paper receipt carrying Templars’ seal that stated the amount of Gold you have deposited. Then, when you reach your destination you went into a local Templar office there, showed the receipt and get nine of your coins back, with one Gold coin (or more) being held as tax for the service. Neat, so convenient. An early form of Traveler’s check.

That is how the Templar knights, as an independent from the church organization, got so rich and the church, naturally, was growing envious. After all, the mighty Church was the only institution granted with Divine rights to have monopoly over land and riches, the Pope had access to more wealth than kings themselves. This was unacceptable and soon rumors of devils and evil spirits working with the Templar knights began to propagate through Europe, which ultimately paved the way for the Church to destroy the Templar order and to claim all of their riches, because the Vatican needed a new grand sealing decoration, you know.

Propaganda is nothing new in this world and rulers have used it since thousands of years. The catholic Church made a good use of it as well. So good, in fact, that the average believer today still thinks that Templar knights were some sort of devil worshippers who made sex with witches and had goat children with five heads and ten eyes, lol. 
When the bare truth is that simply Church authorities envied the wealth of those knights and used their influence to blatantly rob them, torture them Inquisition-style and obliterate their order. Such were the highly humane, spiritually-advanced ways of religion. Not very different from what we still observe today in major religions all over the world. 
There seems to be a strange part, deeply rooted in the average human psyche that needs to be duped, exploited and submitted to authority’s will, no matter how irrational and insane. History is littered with evidence pointing in this direction. There is something profoundly wrong with people. I wonder what that might be, having to do with ignorance, mental passivity and so on.

Anyway. In the 14^th Century, the Church was still reluctant to allow usury, for one reason or another, but human ingenuity found a way to go around this anathema. Since, Christians were strictly forbid to do banking, the Jews saw this niche as an opportunity to secure their living. They reckoned, that if the universal know-how of the Bible forbids lending for usury to your brother, they could lend to Christians, because they weren’t their brothers, thus it was all legal and scripture-compliant. And so the banking business officially began.

At first, the money lenders on the streets of Venice were doing their business on benches along the city channels, and this gave the modern word for Bank, from Italian – Banco for bench. 
Not long after, the Church finally recognized the high profitability of banking and that it would be better instead of opposing it to join in and have a share. Thus, banking was officially de-sinned and now it was allowed under the supervision of religion, that also demanded a percentage of banking profits to be donated to Church authorities, as a sort of offering to clean their conscience in front of the Deity. This ritual is still kept today in chapels and churches alike, they even have these special sticks with a bucket at one end, so that to be able to reach believers reach-grasping-donation-cash easier. It is for people’s convenience, you know, not to make them stand up and walk accross the hall to the donation urn, so the donation urn will instead be taken to them, lol.

So, banks established as a most peculiar phenomenon of human civilization,  that gradually unleashed all the greed and lust for power that were stored in the deepest layers of human mind. However, at first all was good and for a while in the following centuries it was still good. Banks complaisantly kept in safe storage other people’s Gold in return to a modest service tax, while giving away loans to traders and people embarking on business ventures, so that European economy began to thrive and develop with a rapid pace. People were happy and bankers were also happy, everyone was happy. Until, bankers’ greed began to sprout out of control and the Fractional Reserve System was introduced. And then paper money as trading exchange standard. Then paper checks and credit cards, sub-sub-prime mortgages and complex mathematics, while the average believer’s ignorance remained more or less the same. 

Money, in the meanwhile, increasingly turned into empty pieces of paper backed by little to nothing. 
The most brilliant part of it all is that most people don’t really realize this and somehow, local and world economy work with these virtual money. Which, rather baffling situation, only proves that civilization does not need all those money in order to develop, trade and advance. Since, a great volume of money today represent no real value, everything can function just as well, without this inflated paper bulk of bank notes. Lol. After all, "Money is what people agree on to use as money".

I recommend the following documentary, as a short, yet comprehensive explanation of just what money is and how it works.

Title: Money As Debt

An eye opener, isn’t it? It is time for the general population to open their eyes and begin to think and take active role as citizens in their countries. It is time for feudal ways to die off completely. It is time for a Second Renaissance and a true Age of Reason. But if this is to ever take place, at least the majority of average people must lift themselves, mentally, intellectually to higher levels, which means no more easy dumbness and thoughtful degradation in front of brainwashing TV shows. It means making mental effort, consciously, for purposes of self-education and self-informing. This is the only way for true change to take place. Everything else is pure BS and propaganda. Realization is the first step in this journey.

You may be wondering why the title is not really unfolded in this post. Well, because I had to brake the draft into several articles and a few topics, all interrelated, but still way too long for a single posting. I will probably post them with different titles, though, instead of part 1, part 2 and so on. This post being the historic introduction, in very brief, of course. 

Self-education. This is the key. People should never stop learning, never, from cradle to grave. Question everything. Those who don't want you to know, want to control/exploit you (via your ignorance). Ponder this for a while

Tenth Amendment Center

The Big Lie of Economics: Inflation Gate